(submitted by Helen Keenliside)
In 1848 Margaret McElroy Redmond’s grandfather, John McElroy (born 1819 Gavilay, County Tyrone, Ireland; family were Scottish Crofters who immigrated to Ireland in the early 1800’s) and his wife Mary Berry McElroy (born 1825 at Burley, Lancaster County, England) sailed from Liverpool to Canada. He was granted land where Jim Brandon now lives and built a small log cabin. They had to walk to Warwick Village for mail and groceries.
John McElroy was a shipbuilder trained in all aspects of carpentry, including carving and inlaying. He soon discovered 25 acres of black walnut trees on the north half of Lot 13, Conc. 1 North of the Egremont Road (NER) in Warwick Township. He purchased this from John Tanner in 1853 and built a substantial log house and a drive shed with a carpentry workshop above it. Here, in his spare time, he prepared and oiled black walnut planks to make coffins which he lined with silk. He would lower the coffins through a large opening in the floor onto a democrat (four wheeled light wagon) pulled by his team of horses, to be transported to the house of the deceased where he would prepare and lay out the body in the parlor of the house. He was effectively the undertaker of the time, as well as a carpenter, house builder and a farmer. John’s strength and size at 6 feet, 2 inches, weighing 275 pounds were crucial to effectively performing this work. He built houses in the area; including around 1870, the 3 bedroom Ontario Cottage style house on First School Road (north half of Lot 13, Conc. 1 NER) that the family lived in until 2003. The property remained in the family for 150 years. John made walnut furniture that is still in use today, some of which has quite detailed carving in china cabinets with small panes of inset glass. John McElroy was instrumental in building Knox Presbyterian church, where he was a Deacon. The church was constructed like a ship, clad with yellow brick and stood until recently on the north east corner of Lot 16 and the Egremont Road.
John and Mary McElroy had ten children. Their second son, James (born May 24, 1860) and his brother moved to Enniskillen Township where they purchased and cleared 200 acres of elm trees. When James was 29 years old, he moved home to Warwick Township to farm, live with and care for his parents. James built the current barn in 1901. James married Mary Jane McPhedran on May 17, 1905. Mary Jane was a dressmaker and was always knitting, crocheting or tatting. She created beautiful flower beds around the house.
James and Mary Jane had two daughters, Annie Berry (McElroy) Dinniwell and Margaret Bell (McElroy) Redmond (born July 1913). Margaret’s father was 53 years old when she was born, and her mother was 43. Margaret remembers playing with kittens. Her childhood chores were cleaning the coal oil soot off the chimneys of the lamps, picking berries, feed chickens, ducks and geese, and filling the wood box after school. When Margaret attended high school in Watford, she rented a room from Miss Minnie Saunders and shared the kitchen with four other girls. Both Annie, who was a graduate of Queen’s University in Kingston, and Margaret, a graduate of Normal School in London were school teachers. Annie married and moved to Harriston, Ontario where her husband practiced dentistry.
Margaret married Orville Redmond and the two made their home where Margaret had grown up, in the 3 bedroom Ontario Cottage style house on First School Road (north half of Lot 13, Conc. 1 NER) where her family lived until 2003 (a span of 150 years). They enjoyed mixed farming with dairy cows (Ayrshire), chickens (Orville had an egg route in Sarnia where he sold the eggs) and cash crop (peas on contract to the cannery in Warwick).
Orville and Margaret attended St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Warwick Village, where they were both active and Margaret played the organ in later years. Margaret was a lifelong member of the Warwick Women’s Institute as well as the Anglican Church Women.
Chapter 24 of 25 - McElroy Family
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